oldmako

I recently had the intense displeasure of riding in the steerage section of an Airbus with the new Slimline seats.

In one word, horrible. I feel like I'm in a Guppy jump seat without the trash bag and dizzying array of switches on the overhead. The new seat has a a slightly more comfortable back support than the JS, but the butt section is basically leather stretched over a piece of scrap carpet.

I'm fairly tall and I used to be able to slide my legs directly under the seat in front of me without my knees touching the row in front. Now, my knees and the top third of my shins are bashing against the seat frame from side to center. They are in constant contact with metal.

To add insult to injury, with the extra butts some of the flights are now weight restricted to the west coast. A combination of high cruise headwinds and lousy weather at dest requiring ALT fuel and you're taking off at MAX and leaving bodies behind.

So, forget about non-rev unless you're in the relatively spacious cockpit jump seat. For someone my size, I think you may be better off up there.

The internet connection ($12.99) is very very slow. I think streaming is out of the question, but I have not tried it. And, they took out ALL the entertainment with these new interiors. Why not install the TV in the back of the new seats? There is one airline out there with unlimited free TV at every seat. The selection of movies and TV shows is fantastic. Included in your ticket purchase.

So, with a bit of luck, your profit sharing check will be a bit bigger next year due to the increased revenue, but you'll be using that money to buy tickets on another carrier. But, since its all about the money, what the hell, right?

I'm buying a Diesel pusher when I retire. The biggest one I can afford.

Slats Extend

Mako, there are currently two types of slimeline seats in fifi.. The ones they started with are gray and suck donkey balls.

The new slime lines are Recaro seats and they are blue with padding and felt more comfortable than the gray ones.

Which did you have?

Also, the satellite wifi still has issues to work out!

CousinEddie

I thought I read somewhere that the slim line seats saved about 2000 lbs of weight total? Regardless, every other carrier will end up doing the same thing I suppose. I certainly hope the Wifi will improve if it is to be the only source of entertainment. No streaming the stuff you like to watch though James. Not polite.

oldmako

They were non-streaming and largely non padded grey.

I had read that the Recaro's were the bomb, but what I sat in was Heinous with a capital H. The leg room however, was what shot the whole thing to DuBois. I wasn't in uniform and I was still embarrassed.

Any weight savings is offset by the addition of more seats holding more fat Americans and the extra fuel needed to haul the whole motherlode around.

This industry sucks.

Scott Stoops

I was told that there will also be a separate content server (eventually??) that will offer additional entertainment like movies, music, etc that will be completely internal to the jet. Personally, I agree that the seats suck, the implementation of the wifi sucks and the removal of at least some sort of inflight entertainment via tv's is ridiculous in this day and age...

Scott

Jimmykool

I've sat in them (don't remember what color they were) and thought they were very comfortable.

oldmako

Well Jimmy, were you in Econ Plus? How long was the leg and how tall are you?

I was in Steerage for 5.5 hours. I'm 6' 3.5" Funny thing, a whole mess of our pax are tall like me as well. The guy on the aisle was even taller than I am. I didn't ask him, but I'd bet an Andy Jackson he didn't like it either. Not sure how direct contact with metal bits is supposed to make one feel, but I thought it sucked. Glad you liked it.

mrmak2

I got to experience "slimline" recently as well.

It wasn't able to experience it right away because I cannot nonrev on my own airline to work- flights are always oversold and I am lowest seniority for jumpseating in a completely saturated route network (with a tremendous amount of '83 hire commuters).

Nevertheless, I managed a middle seat in row 38 not too long ago and personally witnessed no less that 6 paying passengers completely freak out about the reduced legroom and general claustrophobia related to the changes. I personally felt the same discomfort, so I cannot blame them at all

Toddnel

Rumor has it the wifi vendor is working hard to meet their service commitment to us because of startup issues, imagine that. Streaming by the way is blocked on the other carriers. I have a monthly wifi subscription one DAL and they block all streaming. Browsing however is fairly fast, hopefully we get there soon.

Toddnel

I understand the weight cut but putting in two more rows of seats is freaking crazy.